How clueless are the pop tarts?

Even if no one asks, they’ll still tell.

Unfortunately.

President Hugo Chavez, who claims to be a socialist and abhor anything "capitalist", has weakened his stance in a hypocritical move to cater to Shakira. He even stated that he might just go undercover in order to watch Shakira get her shake on. He said he might have to wear a wig so no-one would recognize him.

Last month, Shakira cleaned up at the Latin Grammy awards and has been traveling worldwide on her "Oral Fixation" tour. Chavez has referred to Shakira as a "sister of this great Latin American homeland" — he’s even lent her an airfield in Caracas, which until now has been used exclusively for nefarious government purposes.

Shakira is backed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Epic Records. In the blogosphere, however, there have been rumors that this may only represent Chavez’s first steps towards a more capitalist Venezuela and that secret talks between Chavez and BMG are currently underway to establish a chain of sweat shops in order to save costs on printing CDs in China.

Music VIXEN says…

Tsk, tsk, Hugo. You need to keep it real.

Hey, unoriginally named “Music VIXEN”: How’s about you getting real (before you start on about “keeping it real”) by educating yourself a bit more on Hugo Chavez first?

Chavecito never said anything about outlawing commercial music in Venezuela–his country is, as always, open to even the worst Sony BMG drivel (which I must say is very big of him; were it up to me, I’d outlaw it on the grounds that it bores me to sleep). But then again, he’s promoting Venezuelan music and culture to compete with it, so there is no reason for him to be threatened or “abhor” anything, as you falsely claim he does. He’s not a communist (there’s a difference between that and a socialist–look it up!)

And capitalism was never illegal in Venezuela, even under him. You probably don’t have the foggiest clue that he inherited a god-awfully capitalist country from his predecessors, and has not jarred it by making sudden changes to everything as did Fidel Castro. Chavez’s Bolivarian process is one of evolution and gradual social change, and it is creating greater wealth for all. He has repeatedly emphasized that industries will only be nationalized if they fail to comply with laws that were on the books even before he was in office (and which, in case you’re wondering, provided for such a move, even if they were never enforced before he came along).

BTW, the “nefarious government purposes” of that airfield he opened for Shakira’s concert are the same as those of any other military airbase in the world. How disingenuous of you, unless of course you’re alluding to the fact that he was shipped to an island, La Orchila, from that same nefarious base by the fake “government” of coup-mongering fascists of 2002, who wanted him either deported or dead. (No doubt they preferred the latter, but the soldiers ordered to shoot him had other ideas. Democratic popularity is such a bitch!)

What, then, is this “stance” you claim he’s “weakened”? I think you must have imagined it, since it exists nowhere but in your own head. And it certainly bears no resemblance to anything I’ve heard Chavez talking about.

So, you ask, what is Chavez about? It’s called mixed-economy socialism—look into it sometime before you start preaching about “hypocrisy”!

And who constitutes this “blogosphere” you’re prattling on about as your source for this ridiculous accusation you make? The least you could do is provide some links so your story can be verified. It’s called responsible reporting–again, look into it sometime.

Finally, you’ve got a whole slew of links to the most downright commercial junk-music on your site, and judging by what your grovelling toon-chick is almost wearing, you sure do look to me like a capitalist whore in the first degree. Who are you to blather about sweatshops “in order to save costs on printing CDs in China”? (Hmmm, surely not a hypocrite?)

Tsk, tsk, yourself, MV. You don’t even know what’s real. Maybe you should do some more research into it, so you’ll be more qualified to write about it in future!